This blog is a communication tool for every participant in the Comenius Lifelong Learning Programme (L.L.P.). It is a multilateral association of schools in these three countries: Turkey, Greece and Spain. We are going to deal with subjects such as History, Traditions, Religion, The Festive Cycle, etc. And our main objective is to approach the similarities which these three Mediterranean cultures have.

We celebrated a Day dedicated to Tolerance on Wednesday the 3rd of November. It Involved all students from the age of 15 (3rd and 4th of ESO, 2nd PCPI, Bachillerato and Tourism Vocational Studies). The activity began at 11 am with a warm up including some dynamic and audiovisual activities. Later they took the test and were given the keys for a self-correction. After that, all the groups met in the playground for a follow-up, shared lunch and finally took part in an Agora meeting (an opinion forum) at the School Hall. As a participation gift all students got mousepads, ball-pens and wristbands.The test results were very satisfactory. Most students showed a good knowledge of their own degree of tolerance since in the introduction to the test they were asked to give a number from 0 (completely intolerant) to 150 (fully tolerant) according to the perception of their own position on the subject, and, once having taken the test, the majority of them had a difference with the score of 15 points or less. Most of the scores were between 100 and 130 points.

The E-Tolerance Test project was closed on November the 25th and 26th in a conference that took place in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, with a representative from our school. A large number of teenage and young adult Bulgarian students attended and took part in this closing meeting. It ended with the presentation of the new website on tolerance: www.tolerancetest.eu, which will enable all young Europeans to take the test, check their score and comment on issues of tolerance in five languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Bulgarian and English). And, on doing that, we have indeed been the lucky first ones.

Our Comenius project Net of Tolerance finished one and a half years ago; however, it does not mean that we then stopped our commitment to it or to the European dimension, but rather the opposite.

Following the path of that project, several teachers in our school have carried out individual European programmes since, and others will shortly do so. Besides, we are at present involved in the development of a new Leonardo Association with new partners, about which we have already taken part in a contact seminar.

Regarding tolerance, we have been engaged in actions that promote attitudes of respect, solidarity and integration. Our school has continued to belong to the network of schools working on solidarity and we have developed different activities on the matter. On the other hand, we are still in touch with Güllü Oruc, one of the Turkish teachers who started the Net of tolerance with us, through post and on-line communications among our students.

We must mention that in early 2009, the IES Monastil started a collaboration with the Intermunicipal Consortium for Employment in the Vinalopó Valley in a European project on tolerance for the youth together with other three participant institutions from different countries: the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Portugal. The aim of the project was to develop and pilot a test which would allow young people to check their degree of tolerance in various situations that may occur in everyday life, and from it be able to reflect on it and improve themselves in their relationships with other people.

The four partners have pursued a line of work that was established by joint agreement of their representatives in the first meeting held in Lisbon in February 2009. There we fixed the common criteria for the preparation of the test, the distribution channels for the different promotional items and the dissemination of the final product through the creation of a website.

In April 2009 there was a second meeting of representatives from the four countries in Elda. A first draft of the tests of each partner was presented and discussed, as well as a sample of the promotional articles and an outline of the future website. We also worked then on the schedule of actions to undertake in the rest of the programme and fixed the closing conference and results for November 2010 in Sofia.

Our school, in close collaboration with the Intermunicipal Consortium for Employment in the Vinalopó Valley has undertaken the following actions in the programme:

-Producing the Spanish version of the test and handing in its English version to the rest of partners.-Helping in the development of the project according to the agreed steps.-Participating in the international partnership meetings and sharing our experience in the subject.-Piloting and evaluating the final version of the test, arranging the agora of opinion and distributing the promotional items.-Disseminating the test, the results and the scope of the project in the field of education and in the media.